On 07-May-99, Lawrence Walker wrote:
On 7 May 99 at 6:19, Doug Spence wrote:
Does anyone
know what kind of modem this is? And which contacts should
be wired to which contacts on the Expansion port?
Hi Doug, nice find. The 130xe is a nice little box. Looks like a junior
size ST. My favorite of the Atari 8-bits.
It's certainly not a bad little box, but I like the design of the 800XL
better. I like the top-loading trapdoor cartridge port and the solid feel.
The 130XE feels a little flimsy to me. (And neither of them has a very good
keyboard, IMHO.)
Considering the colour scheme of the 1050, I think I'll pair up the
power-and-drive unit with an 800XL. :) I have an XF551 drive that goes better
with the 130XE.
Based on how the guy put this together, I'm
wondering whether it is
indeed a modem. The 8-bit Ataris used an RS232 interface box to connect
to printers, modems, etc. The Atari model was an 850 but there were also
3rd party versions, the MEO and the Black Box.
Atari did make some printers and modems but you need the 850 to get RS232
to connect to most peripherals or another computer to transfer disks.
Hummm... I don't know what else it could be, apart from a modem. It has a
phone cable leading out of it. It's got an RJ-11 jack poking out of the
board. And the board has the Atari logo. Of course, the original casing for
the unit is gone.
As for disk transfers, I can do that with my handy-dandy A1020 drive on my
Amiga. It reads and writes several Atari 8-bit formats just fine, including
810 (SS/SD) and XF551 (DS/DD?).
So I don't really have an urgent USE for the modem (if that's what it is) but
I would like to see it in action. Maybe I'll have it talk to my Commodore 64,
and start WWIII. :)
The comp.sys.atari.8bit newsgroup is quite active and
has an excellent
FAQ.
Oh yeah. I do have an old Atari 8-bit Computers FAQ... from April 1995. I
should probably collect a more recent version. :)
I see the Atari 835, direct connect modem, on the list of 8-bit Atari
hardware. Could it be one of these, or did that also require an RS-232
interface?
Did you get system disks with it ? Let me know by
e-mail and I can
supply you with some if necessary.
I found DOS 2.5 at an earlier date, and I picked up a few disks of games. I
don't have DOS XE. I'll gladly take any .XFD or .ATR images you'd like to
send via e-mail, though. :)
ciaolarry
lwalker(a)interlog.com
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--
Doug Spence
ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca
http://alcor.concordia.ca/~ds_spenc/